Sweet Comfort~

Iced carmel coffee and a warm cinnamon roll......what can be better?

How about a Mountain Rose herb catalog, a vase full of daisies and a few minutes to enjoy it all~

I hope you all are having a great weekend!

Peace and Love,
Georgiann

Editors note: Life has put me on a blogging break. All is well with me and mine....we are just really busy and taking time to do other things around the house! I will be back soon!
When I do come back I will have a giveaway!
See ya soon!
Say hi and give me some love if you want?
Peace and Love,
Georgiann

In The Garden~

Things in the garden are slowly coming along....I am harvesting produce! YAH!
I now have my winter broccoli planted.
 Last night Jackie came in with a double blossom Shasta daisy she found growing out front! The flowers grew fused together!

So far I have only harvested lettuces, broccoli and cauliflower over 15 pounds of each! (I had 27 plants of each type!)

Sorry my posts have been so cut and dry.....I have other things I need/want to be doing!

I woke up still feeling tired this morning, need to get my morning tea going then Jasper needs his 15 minute dog training session. And the list goes on......but I'm not complaining! Well I'm off~

Peace and Love,
Georgiann

My Friend Is Having A Giveaway~

My friend from Australia Ann over at eight acres of eden is having a giveaway to
celebrate her 100th post! 
Its open to US residents only!

The prize is a $40.00 gift card to use at CSN stores online!
So go over to Ann's blog and give her some love! Check out how to get entered!

There is only one day left so hurry over and get entered!
Giveaway closes Wednesday July 21 5pm Australian time


Pictured above are a few things I would get if I won!
2 rope dog toys from Jax and Bones....Loise the Lobster and Kramer the Crab!
And espresso/tea cups with a Napoleonic bee motif by French  Home Gourmet!

Peace and Love,
Georgiann

Outside Fun~

Life here at the BLUEBIRD Cottage has been quite busy lately.

Busy in a good way though....gardening,reading to the kiddos,training our new dog and going on play dates. Oh and there is church picnics,bbq's at friends houses, baseball games to watch and just sit in the back yard and watch the kiddos swim in the pool or play in the yard!

Soon there will be 2 back to back weeks of VBS to work at and attend with all 6 kiddos!

Football practices will be starting up in a few weeks for 2 of my boys,my uncle is coming for a 2 week long visit, (I need to get started with cleaning up the house!) and there are a few dentist and ortho appointment to finish before school starts in the fall!

I have not had much time to blog as often as I would like (just every few days) and I have not had time to read and see what all my blog friends have been up to and leave comments.

I do keep you all in my daily prayers!

Ann,Amy,Kimberly,Danielle,Christine,Kris,Suzanne,Trudy,Jennifer,

Karen,Ginny,Tanya,Christina,Kari

 and a few more gals that I don't know there names off hand.... I just pray for their struggles and their joys,new babies and for good health and daily family life! :)

Peace and Love,
Georgiann

Just Hangin' Out~

Last week after hubby took some of the kiddos to the lake for tubing behind the boat and fish to off the dock, he came home and hung out the towels, swim trunks and stuff on the backyard clothesline to dry!

There's just something about seeing clothes on a clothes line that makes my heart flutter!
I guess it doesn't take much to get this gal going! :) The simplest things make me happy!
When things make me happy I get out my camera (which is most of the time). My kids have nicknamed me Mommarottzzi! sigh***

A while after I snapped my clothes line picture,hubby and I sat snuggled on the love seat. We could see the decorated clothes line from where we sat.
Hubby said,"momma,that makes me happy!"
I said "it makes me happy too!"
 Hubby then said "aren't you going to take a picture of it?"
I replied " I already did"!

We both sighed and smiled BIG as we sat snuggled together in the living room......looking at our messy, yet cozy house!
The aftermath of a busy, fun weekend in a house with many kiddos! True bliss!

We are truly blessed and thankful! God is good!

Peace and Love,
Georgiann

A Warm Weather Weekend~

Summers here or at least I want to think so.

We had two nice days in a row and the weather man said, it should start getting nicer.

Last night as I lay in bed and tryed to sleep, I could hear the wind kickin' up!

Today the weather is cool, breezy, gray and overcast!

My garden plants grew a bunch in few sunny days we did have!

We are still in total love with our (Nick's) new dog Jasper!

Jasper is a 1yr old Border Collie we adopted from the pound!

He is so sweet and gentle. His temperament is terrific!

We will be starting a 8 week long dog training class next week!

Monday is my cleaning day so off I go to start in :)

Peace and Love,

Georgiann

Weekend Highlights~

We had to clean the old dog crate because......

Good news! We got the dog!
We got the call late Thursday......our Border Collie we were interested in passed his behavior assessment! So late Friday, I took the kids (minus our oldest whom was at baseball) and met hubby to see if Jasper was the dog for us. We got to pet the dog (Seth as they named him) and really see how he responded to us! We also were allowed to take him out to the play yard and see how he acted!
He was great! After about 1 1/2hours we decided he was the dog for us!
He was micro chipped and licenced and we were soon on our way home.
I decided to take him to our vet for a check up and sign up for their plan! He was wormed, given a rabies vaccine and test for other things. All is great....no health issues!
Nick decided to name "his" new dog Jasper! 
After arriving home last night around 7:30pm we let him check things out for about 30 minutes. Then it was off to the dogie spa! Nick and I were drenched when it was all over with!:) but the dog was shiny and clean!

Today after going to a winter veggie gardening class, out to Vietnamese food then to a new herb/tea shop with my neighbor, I took a quick nap then went on a walk with our new dog and most of my kiddos! My friend with 7 kiddos I know from church just happened to be up at the park with her family.
Their oldest daughter rides horses and the local park has an arena. All the 4H group were doing their qualifying races or what ever they are called. (I'm not a horse person)

Another highlight of my day today was seeing a gal in the herb/tea shop that I met at the new Self Reliant Club I joined. The gal was friends of the owner and we all pow-wowed for almost 30 minutes about herb tinctures and how to make them!

Well hubby took all but me and our youngest child off to the lake for boat rides and fishing off the dock! Our friends live on the lake and hubby has his boat parked there all summer.
I've had a few hours of quiet.....Olivia took a nap for a few hours. Now its time to make a peanut butter and raspberry jam sandwich and water my garden as the weather has finally been warm the past few days!

Peace and Love,
Georgiann

On Cloud Nine~~~

Since our beagle dog died last month we have been trying to decide, when and what kind of dog we will get next! We all talked and decided we would get 2 dogs next time....maybe next December or some time in the spring.

We were thinking to get either a pair if Pocket Beagles or a Pocket Beagle and a Border Collie!

Over the fourth of July weekend I decided to "just browse" the Humane Society website.
OK you can stop laughing now! What was I thinking would really happen?
Needless to say I found a female 7 month old Pocket Beagle and a male Border Collie/Aussie mix up for adoption.
We waited a few days, then headed down to the pound only to find we missed the Beagle by 1 hour! She was still there on hold.....someone else got her! Drat!
But there was a bonus waiting for us when got down there.....a approx. 3 year old pure bred Border Collie had just arrived!
We were eager to visit with him in a room to see if "he was the one"!!!!!  We were told we'd need to wait for him to have a behavior assessment done first. The earliest it could be done was Thursday (today). So we drove home......to wait!

We got the call at 5pm tonight~ The dog passed his behavior assessment!!!!!
 We are going to visit with him tomorrow and if he passes our family assessment we will bring "Jasper" home with us!
The gal on the phone asked if we have ever owned a Border Collie?
I told her No, but I have read up on and know people who own Border Collies.
They all have many kids and love their "herding" dog!
 She did asked the ages of my children and after I told her she replied, it is noted here that this dog is not a good match for families with children under 4. (the dog was licking my soon to be 3 year old daughters hands the day we first saw the dog!) HHHUUMMM????

Olivia (almost 3) keeps asking when we are bring her dogie home!
I took pictures of "Jasper" so I could show them to hubby.
I put "Jasper" as our screen saver......so we can imagine him here!

I told the gal....I have done my research about the breed and my son Nick (11 on Aug 1) will be enrolled in a dog training class with the dog. The pound gives a $50.00 rebate after completing a obedience course. Nick also might take 4H to do agility training with the new dog.
We plan to get a Border Collie regardless and we sure hope that he is the one!

The lady recanted, saying, I do think this dog will be a good match as it sounds like you fully understand the breed. I told her that I want to visit with the dog in a visiting room with all my kiddos,walk the dog on a leash and take him out into the play yard for a while before making a final decision out the dog!

Does he chase the kids?
Does he nip or bite while trying to herd?
What is his energy level?
Does he pulled when walked?
How does he react to other dogs when out of his kennel?
What is the over all temperament of this dog?

If the dog passes my test, then we will have ourselves a new dog!
Keep us in your prayers if you would. We will be disappointed if this dog does not pass MY test but do know there are other dogs out there.
We are in love with this dog but its hard know a dogs true colors with a chain link kennel between us!
I sure hope and pray he passed my test!

Ann at Eight Acres, if you are reading this what can you share with me about the breed?
I seem to recall that you have a Border Collie of some sort?

I'll keep you posted as to what happens tomorrow!

Peace and Love,
Georgiann

Scary To Think.........

....that while we were off at the lake on the 3 and 4th of July, our house could have gone up in flames!
It was not until the 5th of July when I had my friend/neighbor over for a evening cup of tea on my back porch. As we were coming out to sit and watch the kiddos play on the sports court my neighbor asks.... So whats with the fire here?
Paying only 1/2 attention, trying to get out the door without spillin' my hot tea, not even seeing what she was talking about. I said, I don't know?
She (Debbie) said, looks like some one was playing with matches?!
Only then do I look over at what she was asking me about and to my horror, my picket gate piece I use as decoration on my patio by the back door was very burnt! As was my favorite pink garden clog.....melted~ along with what ever else I had sitting out by the back door?

Our kiddos decided it would be fun to play detective.  They looked for and wrote down clues to how and what might have started the fire.
Since we did not light off fire works......and from the clues found, we surmise it was....

Coronal Mustard with the candle stick in the conservatory!

All kidding aside,
From clues collected by the kids, we all think the fire started from a stray mortar shell shot off by the people on the road behind our house. My tea drinking neighbor friend was around for the 4th concurred, there were people on the back road lighting off fire works.

Our house could have burnt down!

 We were back home late that night. We could have been asleep inside. I was sssooo tired that night as we got home late both the 3rd and 4th of July! I could have slept right through any smoldering fire!
God was certainly watching over us! I am very thankful!

There was about $150.00 in damage.  A few thing by the back door that got totally burned.... I don't even remember what all was there.
I'm glad the radio my son had plugged in was not damaged. Being it was plugged in could have caused a secondary electrical fire that would have burned the house down!

Life is precious and can change for better or worse in just seconds without notice!
 Don't take things for granted!

I am thankful that the damage was minimal and that no one was hurt!

Fire works are dangerous and well.....

I pray everyone had a safe holiday!

Peace and Love,

Georgiann

Baseball~Boats and BBQ's

This weekend was busy with 5 baseball games for my oldest son. Mixed in with a BBQ/Party at the lake on July 3rd, followed by me bringing a hot dinner over to feed 13 people to the same friends house the next night (July4) It was a no fuss dinner. A large brown sack of hot baked potatoes, a pan of skinless,boneless chicken breast and thighs topped with BBQ sauce and 9 ears of oven roasted corn.
All hot from my oven and ready to eat upon my arrival!
For dessert we had a bag of white yogurt covered pretzels.

After a quick 4th of July dinner both our families (minus our Jacob...who was at a friend house) loaded onto our boats to go watch the firework show the lake puts on! It was like wrap around fire works!
When the real show started up the fireworks were right above our boat!

As most of you out there know after a busy weekend with a large family.....the house is usually a mess on Monday! Though it is really Tuesday, this is my Monday!

So I'm off to clean and tidy!

I pray you all had a safe weekend!

For the most part we did......but last night while out on my back patio sipping tea with my neighbor we discovered what could have been a holiday disaster!

Stay tuned....I hope to post tomorrow what we found!

Can you guess what it was?

Peace and Love

Georgiann

Delighted~

This year many of us gardeners no matter were we live have had a hard time with mother nature.
The result is having a poorly growing veggie garden!  With much rain and gray days here in the Pacific Northwest many seeds and such rotted in the ground or did not get the sun required! Most of my garden plants are only 6 inches tall! Many plants did not even pop though the ground!
I still have hope....but am braced for a garden with little or no harvest of peppers,tomatoes,
egg plant, corn, beans and peas! Oh lets not forget, carrots,beets, and radishes!

That does not sound like delight you might say?  

Well, that part of my gardening experience has been quite discouraging to say the least!
But being a girl who likes to look at the positive side of things......was over joyed to see cauliflower heads forming on my brassicas plants! I have been harvesting my broccoli for the past few months and thought my cauliflower was not going to produce this year due to the weather?
 My body exploded with excitement at the sight of the somewhat large heads of white cauliflower growing in the depths of the huge leaves! I was on a natural high!
Seeing my plants grow into food for my family makes my heart flutter!

                              I find such beauty in the curves of the plants

and the sweet delicate look to the flowers that leaves me in awe of Gods handy work!

Most of the veggies pictured below are cold weather plants (in the brassicas family), I planted them from starts I bought/planted back in March!

Pictured from top to bottom: Purple cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower,

strawberries, zucchini (green) zucchini (yellow)

dill and chamomile patch

Swiss chard and red leaf lettuce bed

my carrots,beets and radishes are not doing well they were planted in the same bed!

My potatoes and onions are doing well as are most of my herbs with the exception of my basil...

I have had to replace it 3 times!

What did you plant this year?

How well is your garden growing?

~Peace and Love~

Georgiann